Familiar Threads
by VLeiaJediKnight
Summary: If they closed their eyes, it was almost like she was there.
1. Chapter 1

These characters are not mine, they belong to Disney and Lucasfilm. Please enjoy, this is my first time posting, I am hoping that the force is with this one.

Standing on the edge of the balcony gazing towards the sky, Anakin wrapped his hands around the waist of his beloved, took a deep breath and buried his nose in her hair. He smiled, allowing a sigh to escape his lips. …

Leia is standing at the front of the ship, gazing towards the sea of navy blue. The stars twinkle back at her, showing the way to a non-existent home. She recognizes how they dance and lead the way to a bright sun sitting in a place that once offered light to families and homes. Carving a path well-worn and known only to her, the last of her people, floating alone in space.

Luke is balancing on the edge of a great sand dune, gazing into the sky. A deep longing filling his heart that he is unable to explain. As he watches the sky, the twin suns of Tattooine dip below the horizon, painting it a glorious and melancholy rainbow. He wakes up to the quiet hum of the ship and the knowledge that he is still in space, moving towards the next rebel base. He takes a deep breath swallowing his sadness. He has made time to mourn as all those on Tattooine do, and he has moved on. In his mind he allows the sands of his desert home to smooth over the rough edges of old memories and move everything else away in the wind.

Padme stands on the edge of a balcony, alone now, gazing into the vast expanse of the force. She watches her children weave their threads through the great tapestry of the force. She turns her attention towards Vader, her once husband, now Sith Lord. He bullies his way through the tapestry, slashing and tearing apart threads, daring any who stand in his way to cross the blade of his lightsaber. She watches as familiar threads fall apart piece by piece and fade into the force. Her old friends and enemies. She sighs.

Anakin screams inside the prison that is his mind. He is standing on the edge of a precipice, begging the Sith Lord that holds him captive to release him, to jump over the edge. But the Sith laughs and replays everything that they have done, every hurt, wound, and death that they have caused. Anakin shrinks back into himself, unable to maintain the force to push the Sith out of his mind. The laughter bounces around in his mind and he shudders accepting his fate.

One day he wakes up to a cool breeze that smells of fresh mountain air and salt water. Vader dissipates into a clean nothingness, allowing Anakin a small moment of control. And within his dark prison, the mask that brings terror and sadness into all that see it, he sheds a tear. A tear for the shame, for the lives he has taken, and for the knowledge that he may never be able to come back. He whispers to himself, "I'm sorry, Angel. I'm so sorry."

Leia is already crying. She has been able to hold her strong façade for weeks but now she allows her mask to slip. She is still turned towards the sky, as she weeps for the loss of her family, of her friends, her people, and her home. She hears their screams in her head, feeling guilt move through her body and soul, the knowledge that she is alive and well within the rebellion creates a new wave of sobs. She is startled by a sudden breeze of mountain air and salt, hesitating for a moment as memories of her home drift through her mind and then other memories that are not hers. Someone holding her hand. A sea, a lake, a waterfall. A field of flowers blowing in the wind. She takes a last sob and gazes back at the stars, not for sure whose memories they are but is grateful for the relief and comfort that they bring, not unlike a hug.

Luke is in the hangar taking apart Artoo – Detoo and cleaning the droid, going through his memory banks, getting out sand that is still stuck in his gears and reminiscing. He remembers wanting nothing more than to leave home and traverse the great galaxy, fighting and flying. He smirks with irony, knowing that a year ago, if he had told his uncle what he was doing now… his smirk falls away and his hands still, remembering the corpses of his aunt and uncle laying in the Tattooine suns. He is grateful that Ben had been there, grateful for the human companionship at the time. And then his mind drifts to the old man, sad and nostalgic, another piece of his home, his upbringing, torn from his grasp. He feels a soft breeze in the hangar and pays it no mind, being used to the shifting air patterns of the ship. The smell however, stops him and he sits for a moment trying to decipher what it is, the new scent standing out clearly from the dank and musty odor of the hangar bay. He is unable to decipher what the smell is but he thanks the force for a breath of fresh air. Artoo – Detoo whistles back to life startling him out of his reveries and he gets back to work.

…

Luke wakes up groaning from old muscles and a headache that he can't shake. As his eyes open he has to blink them because the sun is so bright. _Wait, the sun? It was setting wasn't it?_ As he gets up he feels a hand on his shoulder. His father is beaming down at him and a young woman stands to the left, gazing fondly at him. He lets his eyes move around taking in the scene before him. Old Ben, but not Old Ben, younger than he ever remembers seeing him and filled with life. He sees Han and so many others walking around and enjoying the peace of the field. And for once in his life he smiles and allows himself a modicum of peace, finally willing the work to be done.

Even though I know that forceghost!Padme will never happen, I love the idea of it and accept it. She has been through enough and I think that she has earned it.

May the Force Be with You, my dear readers.


	2. Chapter 2 Leia

Familiar Threads

Chapter 2

"Leia", it whispers, haunting her very soul. "Leia". She's heard that voice before, in her dreams, in the sleepless night when she would weep alone, and quietly in her bunk. The ship around her humming quietly. She can almost hear the steady hum of the ship again, if she concentrates enough. Even in her old age she leans towards those whispers, wondering, _how much more? How much more._

She sits at her bunk and throws daggers and sharp words at the force in her mind. Whispering back, _What?!?, What else can you take from me?._ "Leia", _I have given you my child, my brother, my husband, my father. My mother you ripped away from me before I was born, the mother and father that you gifted me with as a child you took when I was TEN and then right in front of my eyes you took even their remains, I have NOTHING left._ She takes her head in her hands and sits quietly, weeping through the pain. _What more do you want? The girl? She is not mine and I will let you have her, if that is what she wants, but not before._ She shakes her head no. And again, no.

"Leia, hear me." She sits in her bunk weeping, in pain, remembering. A city in the clouds, a man in a dark suit, losing her loved ones, finding her brother. _I listened once, I came and found you. And yet you leave me here to pick up your mistakes again,_ she smiles ruefully, _to clean up the mess. When I call out for you, where are you? Where were you when I needed you?_ Up on a space station, fighting your fa-, no not father, Darth Vader. Her mind helpfully reminds her.

 _I am getting to old for this._ She thinks bitterly, as she stands and begins to clean off her face. She dons her General's uniform and looks at the mirror. The woman staring back at her haggard and tried. _Far too old. Well, here's to one left last time right? I just didn't think I'd be all alone._ She marches onto the bridge, even as her shoulders sag in exhaustion and she feels ready to collapse she musters one more smile for the new recruits. Smiling at Poe, Finn, and Rey. The new faces. The ones who will carry the new, young, infant government and hopefully, _because that's all she has left, right? Hope?_ They will take the weight on their shoulders and bring it to new heights. She walks up to the new general and smiling, leaves a tablet and a pin in his hand. He smiles back and shakes her hand, thanking her for her years and years of service. She smirks, both of them knowing that while she may be retiring Leia isn't done yet. _Because I don't get to take a break, Skywalkers are always the catalyst and force forbid I sit down for five minutes._ She will continue to serve, lending her expertise and knowledge, just from a quieter spot, maybe some place on Naboo, amidst her young cousins that she found back when Ben was a child, enjoying the waterfalls. _Please force allow me to sit and enjoy at least one waterfall before I fade away too. Just one._

She leaves the bridge and returns to her cabin, placing the rest of her belongings in a box, being a general in two wars meant that she had to travel quickly and only possessed a few things. Her hands pause as they finger a holo, the last she has of her family, and then gently places it back on the shelf in her room. A silent, final goodbye. The Resistance is beginning to slowly fade away, hopefully a more distant memory than the Rebellion and the Empire. _This is good,_ she thinks, _The First Order tucked away and at least for now the galaxy is back in peace._ A tense peace, everyone sitting there, holding their breath, hoping that this peace will last. _Oh, let it last. This galaxy cannot stand to take anymore blows. Maybe, when I finally get to pass into the force, the last of the Skywalkers, the galaxy will get to take a break and breathe._

She gets dropped off on Naboo, arriving to find the queen, in all her finery and splendor, surrounded by her guard of handmaidens awaiting her arrival in the hangar. As she steps from the ship, Leia is greeted with a squad of soldiers all standing at attention, the queen looking up at her in awe. She is greeted as a hero, _I suppose that is what they call me now._ Leia has long ago lost the naive sense of wonder for anyone in authority.

The queen, she finds, has already arranged for a transport to come and take her wherever she may need to go. She smiles, thanking her, _The Naboo, hospitable to a fault_. As she steps on the transport she glances behind back at the shuttle that is already taking new passengers to the old planet city. She sees one of the soldiers step on board after bidding his company and queen farewell and feels bittersweet, knowing her brother as a young man would have done the same thing. _If he'd been given the chance. As a matter fact he almost did_ , she grins as a memory of a wild haired storm trooper rises unbidden in her mind. _Short to a fault_ , she glances around and sighs, _we really did get our mother's luck on the height factor._

She watches the mountains and country side zoom by and takes another breath, Pooja had said to meet her at the lake in _Varykino? Force Naboo and their names._ Her family had long ago gone into hiding and retired back to the lake. Pooja had stayed with the children, Ryoo had been killed in the senate for accidently letting the name Amidala slip from her lips. Leia had served for two years by the time that happened and had been sad, she was a close friend, but now in her older age, now that she knew, it hurt more than anything that Ryoo never got to find out. _Ryoo would have reveled in keeping that secret from the emperor._ She smiles a wry smile.

As the transport slows to a stop the lake comes into better view and she notices the gondola waiting for her, a servant waiting with the oars to take her across the lake to the home on the other side. _One more transport and then a small reprieve, what do I do in retirement?_ Frankly, she had never thought that she was going to make it this far, old and grey, much less retired. Leia takes a step onto the gondola and balances, sitting down quickly as the servant pushes off from the pier. It is a quiet trip, gliding through the water, splitting the water and creating ripples in the lake. _Not unlike space travel._ The servant brings them to a stop, attaching the gondola to the new pier and helping her out. He takes her few small possessions without a word and starts up the path, giving Leia peace and quiet to walk up the steps to the house. _I wonder what it was like before, before the war, wars. Has it always been this peaceful and serene?_ But then she feels it, a slight twinge in the force, small and almost imperceptible. _Something happened here, something important._

She is distracted by the cousins around Ben's age coming out of the house. They run up and embrace her, silently meeting each other's eyes and stepping back. _They are looking for him. I wish, stop that, you told yourself you wouldn't think like that. When did they grow so tall? Or did I shrink?_ Pooja is long gone, she passed away a year into the The First Order's reign, her heart seizing up in pitty. Pooja who never got to grow old without a war to fight. _Her children will get to breathe and live in peace, I will see to that._ The cousins, _the children_ , take her into the house and help her settle into the room. The Naberrie's had a home in town but this house was far from public eye, providing them with comfort and anonymity, something that was in short supply. Future generations would be able to walk around without the whispers but right now it was still too fresh.

She spends the last years there with her family, watching her young cousins grow up. Watching them get married, have children of their own. After the last child she held in her arms began to grow older she started to wonder when the force would allow her to pass. _When will my moment come? Sometimes I feel like having the force can be a real curse. Force she was talking like Han now._ She watched her young cousins die, their children grow old, get married, have children. The whole time providing the galaxy with her wealth of knowledge and wisdom. _I just wished that I had figured some of this out far sooner than now._ Poe had taken the new government and given it to Rey who had turned it down and given Finn the reigns. He had ruled with a wise mind and a firm hand, reminding the galaxy of the potential that it contained, she watched these young men and woman grow up, shedding their baby fat and becoming seasoned veterans in a new galaxy. At some point Rey had joined her at Varykino, finding that the force had allowed her an unusually long life span as well. Rey had left to leave governing to others and not torment the galaxy with another undying force user. Other force users would come and go, receiving training and wisdom, Leia and Rey watching as they left, hoping that they stayed strong.

The day finally came, albeit quietly, lying in bed as the first few rays of sunshine peaked through the curtain in her room. In the first rays of morning light, she took a breath, and let it go. Let all of it go. Rey came into the room to find nothing but a cloak left on the bed all that remained of the great princess, warrior, and general. She smiled softly to herself, mourning her before releasing her memory into the force. Leia, at last, breathes a sigh of relief and peace.

Her brother comes up to meet her, grinning, bringing along her son and husband, and behind them a man and woman that Leia immediately recognizes though she has never seen them before. She sees several people that she remembers from worn, illegal holo images that she and her friends had snuck out of an outpost on an abandoned planet. They walk in peace together, and she allows herself a simple smile. This one filled with peace and joy. She hears her name, "Leia", and this time smacks her brother upside his head. "I heard you the first time, nerfherder." He grins and envelopes her in a hug. "Good, then you know I was always with you, always." _Welcome home, Leia._

 _A/N: Okay so it is not really a Chapter 2, but it is, almost? If you squint really hard. The first chapter is about Luke and the Skywalker family but it ends on Luke. Leia has always been a personal hero of mine so I thought that it would be fun to try my hand at her character and I liked the way it flowed with the chapter. Padme is much more subtle or not? In this chapter, she comes up more so from the nods to her homeworld._ _I am trying to scrounge together a multi chapter fic about this au, because I feel like it deserves one and it would be fun. Also, I would love the chance to justify, story wise, some of the decisions that I have made with the story. I am always up for constructive criticism, feel free to PM me with questions._ _May the force be with you, my dear readers._


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